Ultrasonic testing is a widely used technique employed to detect defects either on the surface or buried within the interior of round stock such as pipe, tubing or rod. The transducer and electronic equipment employed in conducting ultrasonic testing is commercially available and is reliable. The problems in ultrasonic testing reside in the areas of material handling and prevention of surface damage to the stock being subjected to this popular nondestructive testing technique. In addition, it is recognized that the transducer head or ultrasonic probe must be coupled to the work being inspected through a liquid such as water. Since water immersion of the probe head is required, the probe head must be mounted in a water tank. The work to be inspected must then be transported through the water tank beneath the inspection head. In order that the test be valid, every portion of the material being inspected must be subjected to the transmitted ultrasonic beam. It is recognized that a convenient way of accomplishing this necessary step is to rotate the work being inspected and advance it relatively slowly beneath the test head with the resultant motion of a point on the work being inspected being in the form of a helix with a relatively small angle measured with respect to a circumferential plane passing perpendicularly through the work being inspected. In order to permit the inspector to confirm indications of a defect, it is a requirement that the advance of the work through the water tank be capable of being halted or even reversed so that indications of a defect can be confirmed and the location of the defect marked by the inspector. This means that apparatus is needed for passing the work through the water tank on a continuous basis with the provision that the work be halted in its forward progress or reversed as required. In addition, in the inspection of tubular stock in which many pieces need to be checked during the course of the working shift, means must be provided to prevent water leakage occurring as the end of the tube clears the gland at the end of the water tank since any water which gains access to the interior of the tube will produce false ultrasonic readings. In addition, material handling means such as conveyors, troughs and the like need to be provided at each end of the inspecting device so that a number of objects to be inspected can be handled expeditiously during the course of a shift. It is essential that the inspection head itself be constructed in such a way that the distance between the ultrasonic probe and the surface of the work to be inspected remains essentially constant during the course of the test regardless of whether the work is halted or reversed in its forward progress beneath the inspection head. Various means exist for handling the materials to be tested, which materials will vary in diameter and in length, for transporting the materials through the water tank bearing the ultrasonic testing head and for supporting the ultrasonic testing head in relation to the work being inspected. All of the existing means as far as is known to the present applicants possess certain disadvantages which reduce the productivity of the inspector during the course of a shift. It is of course to be appreciated that the objective of conducting an inspection is to permit the inspector to spend as much time as possible actually performing an inspecting operation and is only required to perform the barest minimum in terms of materials handling of material to be inspected. Furthermore, the requirement of protecting the surface of the work being inspected is highly important since the operation is not successful if it succeeds in generating more scars on the material undergoing tests than it detects in terms of pre-existing defects. Known designs in respect of the transducer support suffer in that they either do not permit linear travel of the product under test, do not permit varying the helical path of the work beneath the test head, or employ means such as ball contacts in supporting the test head which provide disadvantages from the aspect of generating a high risk of product surface damage during the course of the test. Thus, ball cup contact arrangements are known but experience has demonstrated that such arrangements are not tolerant of dirt and grease on the product and are subject to seizure which may cause surface damage to the material being tested. In addition, other undesirable features exist with respect to available transducer supports, for example, counterweight arrangements are sometimes employed which can lead to faulty tests if not maintained in proper adjustment. A requirement for continually checking adjustment of equipment of course interferes with the principal objective of the inspection which is to keep the inspector busy inspecting.